When only 13 percent of sophomores at the Grandview School District in Washington passed the state math exams six years ago, administrators decided to develop their own curriculum. For instance, leaders had concluded the textbooks they purchased didn't adequately teach fractions and integers, leading to gaps in student learning. Grandview spent about $200,000 to hire […]
When the next president takes office in January, he or she will preside over major shifts in the K12 education landscape—from implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act and Common Core, to the rollout of nationwide STEM initiatives, to the simmering battles over charters, school choice and teachers unions. When the next president takes office […]
Most educators are enrolling in online professional learning courses in part because they want to increase their knowledge, according to a report by the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). The 2016 Vision K-20 Professional Learning (PL) survey sampled 705 education professionals, including teachers, principals, librarians and tech directors from pre-K through grade 12 and […]
Harrisonburg City Public Schools in Virginia incorporates a technical- and engineering-based STEM curriculum starting with kindergarten and continuing right through high school. The nation needs more STEM-focused youths, as only 16 percent of American high school seniors are proficient in math and interested in a STEM career, according to the U.S. Department of Education (DOE). […]
E-Rate funds kept at least one district connected to the internet through testing—and opened the door for a 1-to-1 initiative rolling out this fall. The Lafayette Parish School System in Louisiana used to restrict internet access, only granting certain streaming websites to teachers by request. For example, music teachers would be the only ones with […]
As smartwatches, wristbands, headsets and other wearable products become more sophisticated, expect to see classroom networks of these "ultramobile" devices interacting with each other and enabling students and teachers to share digital information as never before. Teachers, for one, will receive immediate feedback on how students react to particular lessons. "Imagine a campus where the […]
A third-grader studying the Spanish settlement of California found a virtual tour online and shared the trip with her classmates by slipping a smartphone into a Google Cardboard viewing device. Such limitless online resources represent a big, blended leap beyond the essays students in Coalinga-Huron USD in Central California used to write. Blended learning for […]
Growing up, Eric Osborne never considered a career in the technology industry. "The message we got in school was that it just wasn't something African-American people thought about or did" Osborne says. Besides, computer science classes didn't exist in the Florida schools where he grew up and there were no mentors pushing Osborne toward STEM […]
Big high school football stadiums in Texas have come under scrutiny from local fiscal watchdogs, but pushback is just part of the story about sports facility finance—where expenditures and potential revenue sources have grown more complex and potentially lucrative. Critics say palatial athletic facilities prioritize sports over the classroom and waste taxpayer money. But supporters […]
Many students at Oxnard Elementary School District in Southern California have a dual challenge in gaining reading proficiency. Not only do they struggle with developing literacy skills, but over 56 percent of Oxnard's 17,000 pre-k through 8 students are learning English as a second language. To help these students overcome their literacy deficiency, in 2014 […]
